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August 31, 2007

Google Earth has a flight simulator

The latest version of Google Earth contains a hidden feature: a full-fledged flight simulator! Press Command+Option+A in OS X or Ctrl+Alt+A on a PC or Linux box and you'll be greeted with a hidden dialog box that lets you choose an aircraft (F16 or SR22) and an airport. Once you've made you selection, you'll be placed inside the aircraft. You can then fly around the globe in a free flight simulator, viewing the scenery that is pulled from Google Earth's map files.

I wasn't able to get things to work at first, so if the key combo doesn't work for you, try zooming way into Earth and try again. It seems like you can't activate the feature when you are out in space looking down on the eath. Once you've activated the feature, it will be available from the Tools menu.

Force feedback joysticks are supposed to be supported, though I've only been able to test with a mouse and keyboard. The basic controls are PageUp/Dn for thrust, G for gear up/down, Left/Right for aileron, Up/Dn for elevator and Shift+Left/Shift+Right for rudder. You can also click the screen to enable the mouse to control the aileron and elevator controls. See the link at the bottom for the full set of controls.

Google Earth Flight Simulator - Link
Keyboard Controls - Link
Download Google Earth - Link

Hidden Google Earth flight simulator?

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Huh, a couple makers sent sent in this link that turns Google Earth in to a flight simulator, I just tried it and it works! I'm going to see what no-fly zones it will let me buzz over... -

To enter the flight simulator mode, press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key + Option + A on the Mac). Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator. To leave flight simulator mode, click Exit Flight Simulator in the top right corner or press Ctrl + Alt + A (Command/Open Apple Key+ Option + A on the Mac).

The following keystrokes control navigation and other aspects of the flight simulator. You can also control the aircraft with a mouse or joystick. To disable or enable mouse controls, left click (single click on a Mac). Once mouse controls are active, the pointer shape changes to a cross on your screen.

Flight Simulator Keyboard Controls - Google Earth User Guide - Link.

Make a rubik's cube out of dice - Make: Video Podcast

This weekend, Action Girl and I show you how to make a Rubik's Cube out of dice, magnets and epoxy. Interestingly enough, the first Rubik's cube ever was made with magnets! We found inspiration in gfixler's and burzvingion's instructables.

The hardest part that we had with this was getting all the magnets in the right polarity!

Subscribe in iTunes and get the podcast and pdf downloaded automatically. - Link

By popular request, here's a little video of the cube actually moving! - Link

Make a rubik's cube out of dice - Make: PDFcast

You can get most everything you need for this project by checking out gfixler's and burzvingion's instructables posts, but in this weeks pdf, you can see how we made our jig, check out our trick for installing the magnets in the corner blocks, and learn Action Girls strategy to speedcubing! PDF Link

Kazuhisa Terasaki's Weird-72 wooden humanoid

Kazuhisa Terasaki is known for making whimsical robots out of wood. Basically, they're wood, servos, and an MCU. His robot Weird-7 was such a hit in Japan, he produced a kit for it. Now he's showing off a much more sophisticated bot, Weird-72, that's still mainly wood and a crapload of servomotors. Kazuhisa's website has lots of information, pictures, video and even step-by-step on building Weird-7. Unfortunately, it's all in Japanese.

Weird-72 Creator Kazuhisa Terasaki Talks About His Robot Creations [ROBOT-DREAMS] - Link
Kazuhisa Terasaki Weird-7 site - Link

Solar bike and blog tour of Germany

Steve Paine, a.k.a. Chippy, is a Brit living in Germany. He's currently on a bike trip, along the Rhein River, which he's blogging about using a UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) and portable solar tech. Those geeks in the house who are as ancient as I am will remember Steve Roberts, the "high-tech nomad," who took net-connected, solar-powered bike trips in the computing Jurassic of the 1980s. As you might image, the gear has gotten decidedly more svelte since then. Details of the tech "Chippy's" is using can be found on his blog.

Solar UMPC - [via] Link

Stupid (yet cool) pen tricks

Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Workweek, shows you how to do some nifty pen tricks in this video tutorial. Is this what you end up doing with all that voluminous free time?

Tim Ferriss Pen Tricks - Link

Related:

How to do (and make) magic tricks - Link
HOW TO - Shave a deck of cards - Link
HOW TO - Make juggling balls - Link

MAKE, CRAFT and Halloween wallpaper for iPhones

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A few people asked for our covers in iPhone wallpaper format (320 x 480) so here there are (MAKE, CRAFT and Halloween images) enjoy! To install them just put the set in iPhoto (Mac) or point iTunes to the folder they're in (Win/Mac). The first person to take a photo with one on their iPhone and puts it in the MAKE Flickr photo pool gets a special edition MAKE Halloween - Link (zip).

Repacking NiCd battery packs

The amateur astronomy site Astromart has a short, informative piece on testing and repacking dead power tool NiCd battery packs. These packs are filled with "Sub C" cells. Taking apart a "dead" pack, you can test the individual cells and replace only the bad cells.

Rebuilding NiCd Rechargable Battery Packs - Link

Related:

Cordless drills - Improve the battery - Link
HOW TO - Revive Nicad batteries by zapping with a welder - Link

Banana PC - Custom laptop logo

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There's more than just one glowing fruit computer now! - Link.

Free penguins

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Liz writes -

If you love Linux you automatically love Tux, the cuddly mascot-slash-logo for the open source operating system. Just as the software is free to download and install as your computer's desktop, the patterns for Tux can be downloaded so he can sit on your desktop next to your computer.

The Free Penguin project provides the "source code" for plushie Tux sewing patterns. Your hardware requirements for executing the source code are a printer, fabric access, a needle, thread, and scissors capable of cutting said fabric. Download a development release.

Free penguins! - Link.

Firefly PCB

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John writes -

The Firefly is a tube-based guitar amplifier popularized on ax84.com (a tube amp community and forum). The Firefly PCB was created so even the beginner to tube amps can succeed. The PCB is "open hardware" meaning that the PCB file is free to download and modify as well. Otherwise the PCB's are sold for $19 each. There's a detailed assembly guide as well for download at the site.

Firefly PCB - Link.

MAH PONK: An open table tennis videogame

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Viacheslav writes -

I wanted to do something that has a VGA compatible output. I also had an FPGA board lying around and a bad itch to do something useless. With the help of fpga4fun.com, various online Verilog HDL references and VGA timing information I made something that outputs a steady checkerboard picture to a VGA display. That was cool but after a short while the excitement dried out, I needed something more serious. My imagination is quite poor and in a short while I had two paddles on the screen.. And so it began.

MAH PONK: An Open Table Tennis Videogame - [via] Link.

HOW TO - Make your own embossed business cards using acid etching

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Bofthem writes -

Etch. Press. Print. Want to learn how to emboss paper for your own business cards? Create your own pattern on the computer, and etch it into a brass plate. I've wanted to make my own embossed business cards since I was handed a really incredible one at a fancy restaurant. I tried several methods of achieving the effect (photoemulsion, electrolytic etching) but ended up having the most success with a pretty simple and straightforward acid etch method similar to the one used in home printed circuit boards. I still have to work out a few kinks (such as flattening the paper after the emboss without distortion, or reorganizing the method to print before embossing) but I hope you can take something useful from my experiments, and apply it to your own projects.

HOW TO - Make your own embossed business cards using acid etching - Link.

MAKE Halloween - first round sold out, but wait there's more!

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We are sold out of the illustrated cover version of the MAKE Halloween issue in the Maker store. This version of the cover will be on newsstands on 9/4 so if you want that one that will be the place to get it.

However, we have the alternate cover version available for pre-order (get it here) and a collector's two pack with both cover versions for a special price, you can pre-order the two pack or get the special edition - Link.

August 30, 2007

Scrollable iPhone Dock

Until now, you've needed to be selective about what applications are added to the iPhone's home screen. There are a lot of great 3rd party apps becoming available, but the OS doesn't have the ability to show more than 16 at a time on the home screen.

Nate True fixed this problem with Dock, an iPhone application that sits on top of the home screen and allows you to scroll through all of your installed applications. Slick.

Dock: iPhone mod to enable scrolling in the home screen - Link

HOW TO - Laser cut (and cook) meat

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Here's how to laser cut (and cook) a steak... I didn't want to be the first to try this, so I'm glad someone else did (settings included)... Link.

It might be time to have a laser-cooked-only dinner....

Related:
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Laser etch sushi nori - Link.

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Laser etched matza - Link.

HOW TO - Build a very fancy crystal radio

I was never much into amateur radio or crystal set building, so I can't judge the technical veracity of this project, but the how-to looks very thorough and the results are spectacular. The dials, tap switch and case are so cool-looking, they make me want to build one.

Build an antique style crystal radio - Link

Related:

HOW TO - Building a crystal radio out of household items - Link
Crystal radio mousetrap - Link
Make a "Cigar Box" crystal radio set - Link
Crystal Radio Kit for the Modern Era - Link
The "Built From Scratch" Crystal Radio - Link

Mind-boggling Transformers papercraft

You may have seen this item on Boing Boing Gadgets, or elsewhere, but if you're an admirer or practitioner of papercraft, you've got to check the link out (as I just did). This Chinese papercrafter created an incredibly detailed, articulated Bumblebee Transformer model using mainly fast-food containers (this badass cardboard dude is basically a bunch of KFC bucket lids and Orion custard boxes). I love how he uses the colored ink in the packaging as the coloring on the model, a great Bumblebee color match.

MY BUMBLE BEE With PAPER - Link

Related:

Incredible Transformer costumes- Link
Real Transformers - Link
Transformer patent sketches - Link

SparkFun's new digs

SparkFun just moved into some bigger and better offices; they are still in Boulder and cranking out orders for various kits, components, and more. We dropped by the new space last week to check it out and congratulate them on their expansion - [Flickr Photoset]

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